1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a call management system, and particularly to a system and method of managing customer tickets in a call distribution network having a queue by generating a digital recording for web submissions and hang-up calls.
2. Description of Background
Telephone call centers or call centers house a number of operators or agents that are networked together and provide customer service to customers. In a call center situation, agents work service tickets that are generated for a particular customer. The tickets fall into one of three classes: live phone calls, web submissions, or customer hang-ups (treated as callback requests). These tickets are supported by an agent in the order in which they were queued, regardless of which of the three classes a ticket falls into.
However, this can lead to problems when using a software system such as Call Center for Retain in an Aspect™ phone system. In such a system, an agent cannot simply enter a “Ready” state (connect to a live call) on the Aspect phone system when the agent begins a phone shift or has finished working a ticket because the next ticket may not be an actual live call; rather, it may be a hang-up or a web submission. In other words, the Aspect phone system allows a user to simply connect to a live call by a press of a button or by simply picking up the phone without considering whether or not the next ticket needed to be serviced by the agent is a hang-up or a web submission by a customer rather than an actual live call.
In order to remedy this problem, agents calculate how long the next ticket has been waiting and compare that calculated time to the wait time for the longest waiting live call. Another software system, such as CustomView, is employed with this process that provides the agent the wait time for the longest waiting live call. If these two times match or are equal, then the agent enters the “Ready” state and takes the live call, as it is likely to be the next submission. If the next ticket has been waiting longer than the longest waiting live call, the agent concludes that the ticket is a web submission or a hang-up and proceeds to call the customer back or research and respond via email. As such, taking the next live call will not disservice customers who have submitted a web submission or called and hung-up before a live call. However, the process described above is not efficient and often can be tedious for agents. Moreover, inevitable mistakes can often take rise over time, such as calculating the wrong time difference, which can cause already impatient customers to wait more than is their due.
Another problem with this process is that engineers from other teams are able to call into the phone queues of the system and jump in front of customers. If agents or support engineers are working many web submissions or hang-ups as described above, that engineer may not get conferenced in with the priority he would if agents were able to simply take the next live call, since the time spent of the engineer waiting may not be as long as existing web submissions and hang-ups.